Great Child’s Lit Resources
Christine wrote in the comments from my last post I love surprises:
Just out of curiosity, how do you find all of these author blogs/websites, etc? Do you just google authors you like? Is there a website that lists stuff like this? My kids would be very interested, I think, along with their "book geek" of a mom.
Thanks to the wonder that is the internet, there are tons of great email lists/blogs/websites out there to indulge our "book geekiness" if we so desire. I have found that "child's lit" makes up the core of our homeschooling…we do a lot of reading together and always have an audio book going. And to be honest with you, I think that I enjoy this part of our homeschooling as much as the boys!
I have discovered a wealth of great authors and books by hanging out around Child Lit lovers. There are tons of folks discussing and writing about it on the web. Some of my favorites are:
Child Lit email list: By far the best resource. Ongoing discussions about anything and everything to do with Child's Lit. This is not a homeschool specific list, but is made up of lovers of Children's Literature…list members include authors (Jane Yolan, Philip Pullman, Bruce Hale and many others), teachers (all levels, elementary through college), librarians, English/Children's literature majors, parents and homeschoolers. I have learned about so many great authors that I never would have known about and I love the conversations…especially interesting to hear the teachers and librarians. You can tell that these folks just love children's books!
Mother Reader: My favorite child's lit blog written by a mom (who doubles as a librarian's assistant). We share similar tastes in books and I love her sense of humor. She is the one who turned me onto Mo Williams blog and the National Book Festival. And many, many great books.
Educating Alice: A great blog written by an awesome 4th grade english teacher that I "met" on the Child's Lit email list. She has some great ideas for teaching kids and is the type of creative teacher that everyone would love for their kids (if they are not homeschooling that is!)
Other Child's Lit blogs that I check out:
It also seems that most authors have a website or even a blog nowadays. If you have a favorite author, google and see what you find out. You never know where it might lead. I am hoping to have time soon to update my blogroll to include favorite author sites…
Hope that these get you started…but I warn you, there are tons of great Child's Lit blogs out there…it is easy to get totally hooked! And now I find out about great new books when they first come out which drives me crazy…because I have to make the decision of whether or not to wait to get it in paperback! And what is it with this need that I have where if I find a book that I (or the boys) really love that I have to own it…even if we have gotten it from the library and already read it?? I think it is a sickness…
Happy Reading!
